Their mission was simple: guard a small group of traders until they reached the border of the land of grass.
The route largely followed the main roads, diverting from them only to make a few pit stops at some villages to offload goods and refill supplies.
Team 9 met with their wards just outside the city gates, where they had set up camp for the last few days. There were three large covered wagons to hold the cargo, alongside two larger-end carriages for the personnel. As for said personnel, there were about 16 in total, with roughly a quarter of them being children ranging from about 6-14.
Team 9 was met initially by someone they assumed to be the caravan's leader. He was a middle-aged man, likely somewhere in his 50s, with a thick, salt-and-pepper beard.
The first thing he did after they arrived, was walk over to give Takeshi a firm handshake with a hearty "Good afternoon!", introduce himself and some of the important members of the caravan, and clarify the overall arrangements for the trip.
According to said arrangments, they were to be organized thusly: the two carriages would be in the front of the pack, with Nori in one and Kusuri in the other, for their defensive and medical capabilities respectively. Following behind would be the covered wagons in a triangle pattern, which would be manned by Takeshi at the center for maximum coverage with his Byakugan, and Taga right with him to help defend against any attacks to the rear.
After the talk was over, the caravan took about an hour to pack up their campsite, and then they were off.
----------
For the next few days, the trip was a tad monotonous but overall peaceful.
As long as you ignored the bandit attacks that is.
They were the only excitement that the ninja team got. Unfortunately, they were pretty piss-poor excitement since half of them tended to soil themselves the moment they saw a Hyuga. Even the ones that did decide to stand and fight, were often so poorly skilled and/or (namely and) weak, that they didn't require the action-starved genin to give them much more effort than they gave their stretching routines.
Somewhere along the line, the trio decided to start up a bet on who took out the most, a bet Kusuri was soundly beating the other two in thanks to both his accuracy with his kunai, and his lack of hesitancy when it came to going for kill shots with them.
The latter of those traits actually seemed to somewhat unnerve some of the caravaneers, although they steadied themselves quite quickly once they remembered that wanton murder was basically what they had been for.
They were ninjas after all, and ninjas are trained to kill.
A small number of the caravan, namely the older ones, actually seemed to be surprised in the other direction, at the trepidation shown by Taga and Nori.
They weren't quite ready for their first kill just yet. They'd have to be sooner or later, but that didn't mean now.
While unconscious or dead didn't particularly matter when it came to just protecting the clients, Takeshi went out of his way to finish off the ones who weren't dead quite yet, if only to spare further travelers and the dying the suffering.
Despite the morbid moments, Team 9 still found time to fraternize a bit with their traveling associates.
It was mostly simple questions on both ends, things like what kind of missions the genin had done before, and how long the caravan had been making the route.
This pattern of sitting around interspersed with the occasional homicide stayed fairly constant for their first two weeks, after which they had reached the first of the villages the traders planned to stop at.
They spent 3 days there, allowing plenty of time for everyone to recuperate, some tools and salt to be sold, and to purchase plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables along with a decent bit of meat.
It was through that fresh food that everyone had their first quality meal since they had begun. A meal that, through a bit of persuasion on his part, Kusuri helped make.
Eventually, they left the small village, continuing along their journey and stopping at a couple more along the way.
Around the month and a half mark of their trip, they decided to rest for a few days at a small lake. They had arrived the afternoon before and decided it was the perfect opportunity for a quick wash and the refilling of their water supplies.
Team 9, unfortunately, were not allowed to join in on the bathing, as then more than ever they needed to be guarding the cargo.
They would've complained if not for the fact that they were being paid to do it.
Although it wasn't like a bandit attack was particularly likely, as they hadn't seen any for nearly three weeks. They couldn't tell if it was because there were just fewer thieves in the area, or if word had spread that theirs had yet to leave a survivor.
As they further contemplated their exclusion, the head of the caravan appeared to call them over to pass out everyone's now-boiled water.
After it had all been passed out, without even enough time for someone to take a swig, the caravan head gestured for everyone to gather around for some kind of speech.
"Alright everyone, I can't possibly express how happy I am about the past month. This is the single most profitable trading mission we've gone on, and we still have nearly three weeks to go!
"Lots of my thanks must go towards our valiant protectors". He gestured towards where Team 9 was gathered. "Who have been invaluable in keeping us safe from the many thieves scattered along our path".
"All sixty-two of them," Kusuri chimed in.
"You kept track?" the caravan head replied, a touch incredulous.
"We uh... started a bet," Kusuri responded, a tad bit shyly.
A chorus of chuckles rang out, which were followed by a wave of slightly wary looks.
"Either way," the caravan head continued, "your help has been invaluable, and for that, I give my endless thanks. Now we'd normally we'd for this..."
The moment Kusuri heard alcohol being mentioned, he felt he knew where this was probably going. A toast most likely.
As the speech began to reach its climax, Kusuri popped the lid of his canteen in anticipation.
As he prepared to take it to his lips, however, he couldn't help but notice a strange smell.
It was a bitter, vaguely nutty scent that appeared to be coming from the water of all things.
That was certainly strange, but what consumed his mind the most was how oddly familiar the scent schemed to be.
It took him a moment, but just before everyone took their celebratory swig of water, it came to him.
It was the unmistakable scent...
...of almonds.